The SLAP'D Board of Directors is an integral aspect of our organization's leadership. Our board meets tri-annually to discuss and manage SLAP'D's finances, community outreach, and long-term goal planning. Our board of directors act as both our guiding force and our sounding board. Each of our board members approaches out work with a unique perspective and expertise, and hail from such diverse fields as law, medical technology, grief and bereavement, and more.

BOARD MEMBERS

Brian Coe, Chairman of the Board

CEO and co-founder of SlipChip Corporation, Chairman of Euclid Diagnostics

MBA from University of Chicago Booth School of Business

Brian Coe is Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of SlipChip Corporation, which is developing a micro-fluidic platform for conducting quantitative molecular and measurement assays in research and clinical laboratories. He currently serves as Chairman of Euclid Diagnostics, an epigenetics company he co-founded, and is the Entrepreneur-in-Residence for healthcare at the Michael P. Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Previously, Mr. Coe was a Senior Vice President at The Laboratory Corporation of America (NYSE:LH) and Co-Chairman of its Clinical Decision Support Committee. Prior to joining LabCorp, he co-founded and served as the Chief Executive Officer of Litholink Corporation, a specialty laboratory that provided sophisticated clinical decision support embedded into its reports in order to help physicians manage recurrent kidney stone formation. LabCorp acquired Litholink in November 2006.

Mr. Coe earned an MBA from Chicago Booth and a BA in neuroscience and psychology from Brandeis University.

Carole Geithner

Author of If Only, a novel about adolescent bereavement

Clinical Social Worker

Carole Geithner is the author of the book If Onlyand attributes her interest in the topic of parent death to both personal and professional experiences. As a 25-year-old graduate student, Carole lost her mother to cancer. She says she can personally testify to those awkward interactions, which she refers to as "dances," that happen after the death of someone close to you. Her professional influences began with her work in a hospital with pediatric oncology patients, as well as years of counseling children, teens, and adults in various settings who have experienced more recent or long-ago losses of all kinds. Carole has both worked as an individual counselor and a support group leader at the Bereavement Center of Westchester. Carole currently lives in New York with her husband Timothy and their two children Benjamin and Elise.

Dana Suskind is the mother of Genevieve, Amelie, and Asher Liu. She is an accomplished Pediatric Cochlear Implant Surgeon (an implanted device that allows a deaf person to hear) and is the founder of the Thirty Million Words ® Initiative at the University of Chicago. She is the main source of support and inspiration for Genevieve, especially when it comes to SLAP’D. She is always there to provide a listening ear when it comes to high school drama or to provide strategic insight on the future of SLAP’D. When she is not working as a busy surgeon or on Thirty Million Words ®, she enjoys hanging out with her kids (whom she uses 99.99% of her free time on), shopping (most of the time with her two daughters or online) and reading the New York Times.

Scott Bauer

Founder of the Lauri S. Bauer Foundation for Sudden Loss

Scott currently resides in Long Grove Illinois and has three wonderful sons. In 2011, his beautiful wife Lauri passed away suddenly at 43 years old. The family mourned her loss greatly and honored her by creating the Lauri S. Bauer Foundation for sudden loss to help other families in similar situations. Asides from tirelessly working on the Lauri S. Bauer foundation, Scott also enjoys playing golf with his sons.

Thomas Levinson

Park Piedmont Advisors, National Law Journal’s “Chicago’s 40 Under 40” in 2013

JD from University of Chicago Law School

Tom Levinson is a litigator at Park Piedmont Advisors. He was previously at Reed Smith, with a focus on disputes involving regulatory compliance, health care, and commercial contracts. In 2013, Tom was named to the National Law Journal’s “Chicago’s 40 Under 40” list. The father of two beautiful kids, a son named Asher and a daughter named Estelle, he is also happily married to his wife of ten years, Elizabeth. In his free time, he enjoys writing and playing tennis with his family.

Beth Suskind

Co-Director of Innovation and Social Marketing for the Thirty Million Words Initiative and Project

ASPIRE

Beth Suskind produces all of the videos used by SLAP’D and serves as Treasurer of the Board of Directors. In her professional life, she is the Co-Director and Director of Innovation and Social Marketing for the Thirty Million Words ® Initiative and Project ASPIRE. Prior to this, she worked in television for 15 years as a Producer/Show Runner, and was responsible for all aspects of pre-production, production and post-production for series on such networks as NBC, TLC and A&E. In Suskind’s current role, she applies that same set of skills to overseeing the day-to-day development and implementation of Thirty Million Words ® and Project ASPIRE. Her primary focus is creating multimedia components and crafting messaging for both projects. She also contributes to module and professional development. Most of all, Suskind enjoys working with the families who are at the heart of the programs.